The bag policy is becoming the norm around the nation for sporting events ... lots of things to fairly question or criticize Cohen on but this isn't one of them.
Agreed the sentiment that the AD is going one foot in and one foot out when it comes to the Zone, halftime, and alcohol consumption. They don't want to discourage it but also aren't embracing it. They are moving in the right direction though ... so that's mildly encouraging.
What I think you'll find is that the Zone will still be a shit show at halftime for the first 3 games since nobody is going to care that much about them ... for the Stanford game, the Zone, etc. shouldn't be much of a problem since I would expect that the big honoring of the '91 team will be at halftime and most long-time fans will choose to stay in their seats to honor them.
Ultimately, the decision to open up the arena to beer sales during the game will come down to upper campus and the Board of Regents signing off on it ... my guess is that if Cohen had her way she'd probably have opened it up through the stadium.